1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to power-on passwords and more particularly relates to selectively enabling a power-on password.
2. Description of the Related Art
Blade servers are often used to provide processing power in data processing systems. Blade servers are typically configured as servers with one or more processors, memory, and the like. In addition, a blade server may be configured for easy insertion to and removal from a blade enclosure. For example, a blade server may be configured as circuit board and/or circuit module with connectors for connecting to the blade enclosure. One or more blade servers may reside within the blade enclosure.
The blade server is designed to be easily removed from and connected to the blade enclosure. In some cases, the blade server may be configured for hot swapping, wherein the blade server may be removed from and/or connected to the blade enclosure while the blade enclosure is powered on.
The blade enclosure may provide power, cooling, communications connections, and the like for the blade server. For example, the blade server may communicate with a network and one or more storage subsystems through the blade enclosure. The blade server may receive processing tasks over the network such as a command to search a database. In addition, the blade server may access the database on a storage subsystem through blade enclosure.
A blade server may perform the functions of a standalone server. For example, the blade server may include a storage device such as a hard disk drive and may store data independently of storage subsystems. However, the blade server is typically remotely and automatically managed, so that an administrator may not directly access the blade server.
Unfortunately, proprietary data that may be stored on the blade server can be stolen if a malicious user removes the blade server without authorization from a first blade enclosure and installs the blade server in a second blade enclosure. A power-on password may disable a blade server until the power-on password is entered so that the malicious user may not steal data by stealing the blade server. Unfortunately, the power-on password makes the blade server difficult to manage and deploy, particularly in data centers using large numbers of blade servers.